


Not quite Narnia.

by BeastGirl2k14



Series: One Shots [1]
Category: Young Justice, Young Justice (Cartoon), Zatanna (Comics)
Genre: A little tiny bit of hurt and comfort, F/F, Magic, Pranks, Really really flirty 'friendships', Shadowcrest, Talking taxidermi animals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-18
Updated: 2014-06-18
Packaged: 2018-02-05 05:33:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1807171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeastGirl2k14/pseuds/BeastGirl2k14
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The girls have a small little adventure through Shadowcrest, Zee's ancestral home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not quite Narnia.

"As much as I love being shoved into dark closets with you, Zee....." You began when soft hands pushed you into a dark room, a short raven haired girl following after you. "I'd usually ask you to explain a little or at least buy me dinner first." You joked. You couldn't see Zee, but you could imagine the expression on her face after that quip. Zatanna flipped on a light with a ghosting touch and few backwards words, blurring your vision for a few moments before--"Woah."

Zatanna's hands tugged you into the closet, shutting the thin slat doors behind you---and wow okay, this was some Tardis-meets-Narnia bullshit because her closet was waaayyy too big to actually be in the Cave. Like, was there actually an end to it? You couldn't see one and you had superb eyesight.

You don't think you'd actually ever seen her wear any of the stuff hidden away in here, gathering dust. Revealing black clothing, fur trimmed items, a rather extensive collection of fishnets, capes and variations of each item of her costumes filled shelves and racks and--It was just bizarre imagining her wearing any of this. It was like you'd just stepped into a completely different aspect of her personality....Well, stepped wasn't really the right word. Yanked into was a little more accurate.

"Come on, I want to show you something." She said, tugging lightly on your loose grey crop-top (that she hadn't let you change out of when she'd basically kidnapped you from your training session with Ollie).

You raised your eyebrows as she led you further in by your wrist, past impressive top hats and really old looking gimmicky magic props. (Who keeps magic props in their closet?) (Wait, nevermind, this is Zatanna.)

You really don't have a a super dirty mind. Actually, Your mind was relatively clean in comparison to Dick and Wally's, although, then again, whose mind wasn't? But, when a pretty girl drags you into her closet full of some actually really kinky looking things, and then tells you she wants to show you something..... well, Only a very sheltered child wouldn't have raised their eyebrows at that a little.

"....Er, Zee." You tried objecting, trying to grab her wrist and slowing her down so she'd give you a real explanation of why she interrupted your target practice session to drag you into her seemingly endless closet-o-weird-witchy-bullshit.

"Sh sh, It's a surprise." She insisted, throwing you a smile over her shoulder that instantly shut you up.

You completely gave up on getting a straight forward answer out of her around the same time she (finally) came to a stop in front of a huge gold trimmed mirror leaned against an empty shelf.

"You dragged me all the way in here so you could....check your hair?" Artemis asked incredulously.

"Ha. You say that as if it wouldn't be something I'd actually do." Zatanna brushed a lock of wavy black hair behind her ear. "But no, step through the mirror."

You examined her expression, your eyebrows knitting together as you watched a smile spread across her lips. Either she 1)Was a very high functioning drunk. 2)Had finally lost her mind. 3)Was still really into confusing you with her witchy bullshit.

Number 3 for $200, Jerry.

"Just do it." She pressed, gesturing in the direction of the mirror.

"What's the magic word?" You asked, a smirk sliding onto your face. At this point in your friendship with the One, The only, The all-powerful Zatanna Zatara, you'd learned to just roll with the punches and get in as many snarky one liners as you could before she threw you into the next misadventure.

"I can think of about 12 that I'm sure you won't like...." She said, a challenge burning in the electric blue of her eyes.

"Fine, Fine." You held your hands up in surrender. If you knew anything about Zatanna, it was that she was beyond willing to turn a few people into frogs for a few hours just to prove a point. Dick and Conner would vouch for that.

Your eyes came up to the mirror, scrutinizing it incredulously. What's the worst thing that could happen? You put the toe of one of your shoes into the mirror, as if you were testing water or something, the mirror rippling in response. Well, so far so good. With a slight shift of your weight the rest of you leg followed and you shivered. "It feels weird."

"Keep going." Zatanna prompted, waiting patiently with her arms crossed over her red tank top.

You gave her one last look before stepping all the way through the large transdimensional vanity, the tingle it sent through your entire body making you shiver again. You were honestly never going to get used to the feeling of magic running across your skin. (You were kind of glad.)

"Woah."

It was really the only word you could use to describe the place you'd ended up stumbling into. Towering stone pillars supported a ceiling looming hundreds of feet above your head and under your feet bright red carpets decorated the long halls and stairs set out before you. You felt like you'd just been popped into Hogwarts, complete with huge doors and empty suits of armour.

"Welcome to Shadowcrest, Arty." Zatanna's hand on your arm was the only thing to take you away from oggling the huge estate, even in the dim lighting. You probably would have been a bit surprised to see her suddenly garbed in her stage outfit if you actually had the ability to be anymore surprised than you were.

"S'eldnac erif nrub rethgirb." Zatanna muttered next to you, and the echo in her voice was accentuated by the echo in the huge almost Colosseum like halls. You saw the effect of her words rather than actually understanding them when all of the candles and torches around you flared to life.

"Care for a tour?" Zatanna asked, a new sort of pep to her step, her coattails grazing the back of her thighs.

_*_

You don't know what was more jarring, the a hundred foot tall stone statues of a devilish looking goat man and an angel springing to life at Zee's command and opening the towering doors before you or the fact that Zee didn't even flinch.

"And this is the inner sanctum of John Zatara," She said as you two entered a huge room WITH A FUCKING GRIFFIN SUSPENDED FROM THE CEILING RIGHT ABOVE THE DOOR. "Enter in peace, leave the same way." Zatanna continued as if this was business as usual. Which for her, it probably was.

More like enter in amazement that I'm only now finding out about this, leave in utter disbelief that this is a real thing. You thought as your eyes scanned over the endless marvels that littered the magnificent library. Mythical beasts, Scrolls, Skulls and---was that a dodo?

"Wow...just...wow. This is...this is amazing, Zee!" You turned around to look at her, a little but surprised to see hints of sadness dampen her features.

"You seem upset, Miss Zatanna."

Wait. That wasn't you. That wasn't your voice. Was someone else here? You whirled around on your heels, searching the room for the source of the voice.

"Chauncey! You're confusing Zatanna's quests." That was a new, higher voice. Did the Dodo say that? No, that's impossible...

"I was merely showing concern for our young mistress, Abelard." You swear that that voice came from above your head.

"That's enough out of both of you." Zatanna said with that exasperated fondness, you really didn't like her using that on anyone who wasn't you.

"I feel like I've been shoved into Hogwarts after hours." You muttered, feeling Zatanna at your side, her hand on your back in a way that was probably meant to calm you, but really only made your spine tingle.

This has turned into some 'Thelma and Louise' meets 'Bewitched' style bullshit and you hadn't even gotten through the entire tour.

"Be careful, babe, a lot of items around here are thought and touch sensitive." She murmured to you when you rested your hand on a table.

"Right, so no touching."

"No touching." Zee affirmed, smiling kindly at you. It was really hard not to just melt when she did that. Her smile must be charmed or something.

"With all of this stuff...plus all of your power...why are you doing parlor tricks and running around with us?" You inquired compulsively. It was one of the first things to come to your mind when you first caught sight of the various gems and wands strewn around the room.

"I try not to use magic as a weapon." Zatanna said, turning away from you and picking up a small framed picture off of a worn wooden desk. "And I love doing my 'parlor tricks'."

Shit. You could hear the slight tinge of hurt in her voice. She was here, visiting her fathers old office and you were just insulting her profession, great job, Arty.

"I didn't mean it like that, Zee." You said softly, putting a hand on her shoulder. You didn't even have to look to know she was looking at a picture of her and her father. You almost had a sixth sense for Zee's emotions. "They are really impressive tricks." You murmured, stepping closer to her and resting your chin on her shoulder, trying to get her mind off her dad.

You looked at the picture in her silky white hands, your eyes scanning over the smiling faces of three raven-haired people, recognizing the adorable blue eyed girl as Zatanna instantly, and the smiling green eyed man as John. But, hello. Cute blue eyed boy at the edge of the frame, looking like he'd jumped into the photo just in time.

"Whose the boy?" You asked. "He's cute."

"Pft. That's Zach. He's my cousin." She laughed, setting the photo back down and shrugging you off of her shoulders so that she could turn around.

"Zach Zatara?" You raised your eyebrows. "Zatanna Zatara and Zach Zatara. Your family really likes alliteration, hm?"

You finally got the look of semi-exasperation and semi-amusement back....which is kind of weird that you'd started wishing for her to look at you like that now. Maybe she'd cast a spell on you and you just hadn't noticed.

_*_

"And that concludes our tour. Be sure to stop by the gift shop for your complimentary 'Zatanna is the greatest' t-shirt."

You laughed, not because over the years you'd actually ended up with a few of said shirts, but because of the smile you could get out of her when you laughed at her silly jokes.

"This place is great, Zee. Why don't you hang out here all the ti---" You snapped your mouth shut. God, you could be really stupid sometimes. "Sorry, that was a stupid question."

A slight frown pulled at he edges of her lips before she shook it off and shrugged. You could feel Zatara's essence around this place, you could only imagine how it must have felt for Zee. You compulsively pulled her into a hug, wrapping your arms around her shoulders before she could even think to pull away. You smiled a bit when you felt her arms curve around your waist, pulling you closer to her.

"Emoh." She whispered against the curve of your shoulder.

_*_

"I don't know why you insist on doing flashy spells for no reason." You said to a groggy looking magician.

"It was only two spells. One to get back here and another to make the 'fridge try to eat Wally." Zatanna tried to reason. "I mean, totally worth it." She snickered.

"True." You said with a smile, sitting on her bed next to her. "Now, go to sleep, Witch Girl."

"Make me." A sleepy smile spread across Zee's mouth, which wow, was really cute but also sort of frustrating.

"I have stun arrows, Zee, don't test me." You joked, brushing your fingers over her bangs, pushing them out of her face. She seized your hand and gave it a gentle tug, giving you a look you could only describe as _needy_.

"You look a little sleepy too..." She said. "Maybe a nap would do you some good, Arty."

There really was no point in trying to fight Zee. She sure didn't need a spell to convince you to slip into her bed with her and that smoky tone to her voice was making it hard to think of any words that weren't 'yes. That sounds great.'.

"Mmmm...Maybe a short one.." You smiled softly, letting her pull you forward.

_*_

You dreamed of having a picnic in an endless field of lavender that night. Which was totally worth the 12 missed calls from your mother and the week of being grounded that resulted.


End file.
